The multiband filter BARK takes the approach to match the reception characteristic of the final destination of all sound: the ear. The ear behaves as if it contains a bank of filters, each filter passing frequencies within the critical band. Two tones separated by more than a critical bandwidth are received by the ear independently. For this reason BARK contains a filter bank with 27 bandpass filters matching the critical bandwidth. In fact, the human ear have also its own built in compression system which are based on the critical bands. Consequently BARK incorporates an independent compression algorithm for each of it’s 27 bands.